[Archived] Wolves Preview

[Rovermatt]

Delighted with the win. Finally our season is up and running. And Burnleh lost.

[des]

first game I have not watched and we go and win

well done to all and three points will give us all a lift.

As for playing one up front well it worked to day, but as a rule I would always like to play two up front.

[rovers1995]

1 more win and we'll be 7th

[luredbycheaptickets]

It's a pretty flexible 4-5-1. Diouf and Dunn were in advanced positions on a regular basis. And Pedersen gets forward a fair amount. In fact, it was almost an old fashioned 4-2-4!!!

[Plastic Head]

Can't say i'm happy despite the win. The opposition were awful and are cetainties for relegation.

Why we were so cautious I don't know.

Roberts as a sole striker is not going to get us goals against all but the poorest teams. The managers substitions simply caused us to fall apart defensively when the game was thankfully won. It was crying out for Hoillet to be brought on at 2-0 never mind 3-0, Kalinic should have got 20 minutes at least but instead we made needless defensive subs.

Marks bear in mind the standard of the opponents.

Robinson. A few flaps today and got away with one early error in particular. No chance with the goal. 5.5/10.

Jacobsen. Another solid display. Needlessly subbed. 7/10

Chimbonda. Excellent throughout defensively, would like to have seen him getting forward more.7/10

Samba. Usual self, no errors. 7/10

Givet. Solid and reliable and got the key goal in all but name. 8/10

Grella. Did his job without standing out. 6.5/10

Andrews. Would fit right in back at his old club Wolves. 5/10

Pedersen. Wasted throw-ins. 4 terrible corners. 2 awful free-kicks. Hit the post. Shouldn't be taking set-pieces and the long throw tactic isn't working, even against the crap. What does he actually do? 3/10

Diouf. Worked extremely hard, if only he had pace. 7/10

Dunn. Caused problems all afternoon but would like to see him as a centre mid player with 2 forwards. 8/10

Roberts. Bet my dad £50 he wouldn't score when he went clean through. He's bringing it on Tuesday. Frustrated by terrible officiating. 6.5/10

Emerton. Looked to be suffering no ill effects from his lay-off on this evidence. 6.5/10

Nelsen. Not his finest 15 minutes. 4.5/10

Salgado. Said hello. 5/10

A special word for the linesman who patrolled the Rovers attackers who was the worse I have witnessed for a long time, even trying to flag one of ours offside from our throw-in. Missed their keeper being outside his area despite looking straight accress the 18 yard line. Not to mention numerous other errors. Well done sir!

We have to more positive our we'll get caught up in a relegation battle (if we aren't already)

[rover6]

It's great that Dunn is flourishing in the free-ish role that he's got.

It takes more than ability to succeed in that role. Remember, at Arsenal, Norwich and Blackburn, David Bentley failed too prove that he could make that role his own. Perhaps with more patience he would have.

However, to be consistently good as a second forward requires intelligence to know what part of the pitch to occupy to cause the most damage - and then the confidence to lead the attack.

Keep it up Dunny. (Or should that be, Dunny's body...which is my worry).

[S15]

In this form we look unstoppable. Shame City didn't come to town a month later, we'd probably have beaten them pretty easily. Dunno how much that Vinny Grella cost, but it was probably £5m too cheap, has he been given a new contract yet?

Andrews was crap, as per, but that Right back who came on looks a bit special. James Bond is as good as Warnock, and I reckon we'll treble our money for him in January.

[Dan Furness]

Well played lads.. a good all round performance I thought against an average Wolves side..

Robinson - 7 - Did well when called upon

Jacobsen - 7 - Very solid

Samba - 7 - Faultless against very little threat in fairness

Givet - 8 - This guys oozes class

Chimbonda - 6 - was dissapointed with him after last weeks performance, was a bit lazy and not as up for it as last week.

Andrews - 7 - Good game played well

Grella - 8 - must say very impressed, best game he's had since the Middlesbrough game last sason.

Diouf - 7.5 - He makes things happen and is almost savage like in terms of getting the team (and often the opposition) going

Pederson - 7 - Shame he didnt score, a solid performance

Dunn - 8.5 - Very good didnt stop running all day and was teh person most likely to make things happen.

Roberts - 7.5 - If he could finish (and stay onside!) he would be called Drogba!

Very encouraged by what I'v seen in the 3 games this season and the squad we now have seems to diffcult to predict the 1st eleven when all fit..

WOULD LOVE IT if we could beat Villa and show Warncok he's made the wrong decison (although I hold no malice against the guy - he always gave 100% whilst at our club so cant fault him)!

Are you for real giving Grella better rating than Diouf? he was best player on pitch in my eyes closely followed by Dunn

And just had to edit my post after seeing you compare Roberts with Drogba. Clearly you are drunk or dont know a single thing about football

[John]

It will be fascinating to see how much we sell Givet for in January!

Let the good times roll!!

[RibbleValleyRover]

Keep it up Dunny. (Or should that be, Dunny's body...which is my worry).

That's my worry as well, there is no question Dunny has the talent to play that role but can his body handle it week in week out? He's probably the only player we have that can really do that role as well, maybe Emerton could as he has the energy and the drive to be able to do it, but Dunny has the flair and vision. Does Bert have that?

I'll hold my hands up, before the game i thought 'oh no!' when we saw just one proper striker and that was Roberts. Fair play to Sam he made the right decision and it paid off today.

Still have my doubts that it will work against a top side, Sam will in my opinion stick with it going into the next game against Everton but i am sceptical that it will work all the time.

I still think we have the personnel to play a 4-4-2, Grella by the sounds of it could play the holding role and give Dunny the freedom to make those forward runs.

[brfcs5359]

Can't say i'm happy despite the win. The opposition were awful and are cetainties for relegation.

Why we were so cautious I don't know.

Roberts as a sole striker is not going to get us goals against all but the poorest teams. The managers substitions simply caused us to fall apart defensively when the game was thankfully won. It was crying out for Hoillet to be brought on at 2-0 never mind 3-0, Kalinic should have got 20 minutes at least but instead we made needless defensive subs.

Marks bear in mind the standard of the opponents.

Robinson. A few flaps today and got away with one early error in particular. No chance with the goal. 5.5/10.

Jacobsen. Another solid display. Needlessly subbed. 7/10

Chimbonda. Excellent throughout defensively, would like to have seen him getting forward more.7/10

Samba. Usual self, no errors. 7/10

Givet. Solid and reliable and got the key goal in all but name. 8/10

Grella. Did his job without standing out. 6.5/10

Andrews. Would fit right in back at his old club Wolves. 5/10

Pedersen. Wasted throw-ins. 4 terrible corners. 2 awful free-kicks. Hit the post. Shouldn't be taking set-pieces and the long throw tactic isn't working, even against the crap. What does he actually do? 3/10

Diouf. Worked extremely hard, if only he had pace. 7/10

Dunn. Caused problems all afternoon but would like to see him as a centre mid player with 2 forwards. 8/10

Roberts. Bet my dad £50 he wouldn't score when he went clean through. He's bringing it on Tuesday. Frustrated by terrible officiating. 6.5/10

Emerton. Looked to be suffering no ill effects from his lay-off on this evidence. 6.5/10

Nelsen. Not his finest 15 minutes. 4.5/10

Salgado. Said hello. 5/10

A special word for the linesman who patrolled the Rovers attackers who was the worse I have witnessed for a long time, even trying to flag one of ours offside from our throw-in. Missed their keeper being outside his area despite looking straight accress the 18 yard line. Not to mention numerous other errors. Well done sir!

We have to more positive our we'll get caught up in a relegation battle (if we aren't already)

Agree. Thought Wolves were awful and they had 5 or 6 out. Rovers strayed sloppily and there was an issue of confidence as Sam said. Much better passing as the goals went in.

MGP agree. Poor game today. Bad management to let him produce a catalogue of crap from dead balls. Disagree about Diouf. Worked hard, talentless - Same again /5.5 - A squad player only.

Andrews played better, albeit against a championship team. Givet had his poorest game, still a 7/10 instead of the normal 8. Robinson had a stinker. Flapped at everything following several good performances.

Roberts was Roberts. He'll relegate us he was that bad AGAIN. Two easy chances first half embarrasingly wasted then Dunns goal. Can't think of anything he did right.

Grella was a big improvement on WHU. Partly Wolves deficiencies. Not a modern box to box player therefore not good enough for modern football. 6/10 today

jacobsen keeps improving and a pointless sub bringing on Selgado. Nelsen added authority to the back, however at 3 nil and 3 subs Rovers players just switched off. Wolves had 4 or 5 good situations to score.

Emerton looked very lively and tealy perked up the team. Dunn was MOM and if he keeps fit is better than most of the supporting midfielders in Fabios squad. Wright Phillips, Milner and Lennon one of his regular bad days.

All in all winning is not about playing your best but doing enough. We did enough. Now we need to lol to drop 2 or 3 who played today and replace them with he better players coming back from injury.

[Fylde Coast Fan]

Are you for real giving Grella better rating than Diouf? he was best player on pitch in my eyes closely followed by Dunn

And just had to edit my post after seeing you compare Roberts with Drogba. Clearly you are drunk or dont know a single thing about football

I know what he means about Roberts/Drogba. Don't get me wrong, Jase is a very poor man's (homeless man's?) version, and he can't finish for toffee, but he tries to play the same way - strength and pace. Roberts on form is a real handful for most defenders and makes space for his partner to exploit.

[LeChuck]

I know what he means about Roberts/Drogba. Don't get me wrong, Jase is a very poor man's (homeless man's?) version, and he can't finish for toffee, but he tries to play the same way - strength and pace. Roberts on form is a real handful for most defenders and makes space for his partner to exploit.

Maybe a better comparison would be Heskey's role for England.

[tashor]

Man of the match - Mr Givet, wonder how many of those he'll get this year. Excellent defender.

Correct..............

[1864roverite]

The comparison between Roberts and Heskey ?

Its like the cricket at half time.

Roberts is the light roller and Heskey is the heavy roller

Both spend more time rolling around than playing football

[sambo]

Maybe a better comparison would be Heskey's role for England.

Wouldn't say so myself, because Roberts is poor at holding the ball up.. they're similar in the sense in that they work hard for the team, but I'd say Roberts is more of a goalscorer... not that he scores many or can finish, but that's what I think he's there for (up front on his own...)

Although it could be a better comparison when he's playing with a partner up front..

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

Didnt go to the game so cant comment on the performance but a decent result and one which gets our season up and running.

One issue for me is this:

The only advantage our squad has over the rest of the lower half of the league lies in Kalinic/Hoillet/Di Santo. Exciting, young and dangerous players. No other team in our half of the division possess' such a depth in striking/creative talent. I just really hope Sam gives them a chance sooner rather than later. Roberts will do a job but he is not good enough for this division and never has been, certainly as a lone striker.

[beanie]

Roberts was Roberts. He'll relegate us he was that bad AGAIN. Two easy chances first half embarrasingly wasted then Dunns goal. Can't think of anything he did right.

Eh does score not count as part of him doing something right some people on here only want to get on peoples back. We win and all of a sudden its against a depleted championship team. We won against a premiership side have key players coming back from injury and in my opinion had a strong looking bench things are not as bad as some folks would have you think.

[tomphil]

Agree. Thought Wolves were awful and they had 5 or 6 out. Rovers strayed sloppily and there was an issue of confidence as Sam said. Much better passing as the goals went in.

MGP agree. Poor game today. Bad management to let him produce a catalogue of crap from dead balls. Disagree about Diouf. Worked hard, talentless - Same again /5.5 - A squad player only.

Andrews played better, albeit against a championship team. Givet had his poorest game, still a 7/10 instead of the normal 8. Robinson had a stinker. Flapped at everything following several good performances.

Roberts was Roberts. He'll relegate us he was that bad AGAIN. Two easy chances first half embarrasingly wasted then Dunns goal. Can't think of anything he did right.

Grella was a big improvement on WHU. Partly Wolves deficiencies. Not a modern box to box player therefore not good enough for modern football. 6/10 today

jacobsen keeps improving and a pointless sub bringing on Selgado. Nelsen added authority to the back, however at 3 nil and 3 subs Rovers players just switched off. Wolves had 4 or 5 good situations to score.

Emerton looked very lively and tealy perked up the team. Dunn was MOM and if he keeps fit is better than most of the supporting midfielders in Fabios squad. Wright Phillips, Milner and Lennon one of his regular bad days.

All in all winning is not about playing your best but doing enough. We did enough. Now we need to lol to drop 2 or 3 who played today and replace them with he better players coming back from injury.

Did you actually watch the game ? Or are you just another negative supporter.

[grizfoot]

I'd honestly take Roberts over Heskey, he offers more of a goal threat. Today Roberts had a decent enough game, always seems to shine against the lesser opposition, think it was against Watford a couple of season back where he looked the real deal. I wish sometimes he'd just stop moaning and get on with the game, moaning doesn't gain you anything but a likely booking.

I'm not a fan of 4-5-1, although today because we were much more positive it was more of a 4-4-2 at times. Dunn was so advanced that he was basically playing upfront or in the role as the secondary striker if you like. Still think we'd be much better off putting Dunn back in central midfield and taking out either Andrews and Grella who are basically two players doing the same job. That leaves us free to play another striker alongside Roberts, especially at home. I can understand the 4-5-1 away from home and against better oppostion.

The player that made the real difference to both the formation and the game today was a certain El Hadji Diouf. He puts himself about and gets forward at every opportunity which is exactly what you want from your wingers in the 4-5-1 formation, obviously fimiliar with this role after his time at Notlob. The goal which set-up the game nicely, was purely down to Diouf chasing the ball down and putting the shakey Wolves defense under pressure and ultimately forcing them into a mistake. Who knows if it had stayed 0-0 till HT maybe the game would have turned out differentley. We definately missed Diouf for the West Ham game, his movement and runs help our attacks a lot.

Robinson, world-class shot stopper still not convincing from crosses though. Jacobson and Samba, both very steady. Givet, seemingly gets better every game Nelsen's going to find it hard getting back into thr starting XI. Chimbonda, looked a bit shakey today for some reason seems to dwell on the ball a bit too much not helped by the fact he can seemingly only use his right foot.

Pedersen, set-piece specialist nothing much else to note. Grella & Andrews, both don't fill me with that much confidence to be fair can look brilliant one minute and rubbish the next. Finally Dunny was the creavitity spark again, one problem is he tries a little bit too much at times but he's the only player who can dribble past a number of players and create something out of nothing.

It's hard to judge whether Wolves where really shocking or we were just really good. I'm edging towards the fact that Wolves where just a poor team, defensively especially, the lad they've got on loan from Chelsea who they've been raving about was really poor and was run ragged all game. As the old saying goes you can only beat what's put infront of you and after the West Ham game this was never going to be easy, but thankfully we stepped up our game a gear and were simply too good for Wolves. We were even treated to a little bit of keep ball at 3-0 that was bordering on Barca-esque.

There was also a few comedy gold moments amongst today's game to report. Firstly the Wolves player attempting a step-over only to complete the step-over and then do a quick twirl before falling flat on his ass and have the ball run out of play. Secondly the 'Are you Tugay in disguise?' after the introduction of Salgado was brilliant. But the award for comedy gold moment of the match goes to the linesman running the line infront of the Riverside stand second half who flagged Roberts offside from a throw-in! Needless to say the ref ignored this and played on, shortly after the linesman could be seen shelding his eyes from the sun.

A sunny Saturday afternoon in Blackburn, three goals and our first three points of the season. What more could anyone ask for?

[JAL]

Interesting to see Paul Robinson pointing at El Hadj Diouf giving him a public rebuke after the Wolves goal.

Robbo didnt hide his emotions to who was to blame when constantly pointing at El Hadj.

[RIML]

Did you actually watch the game ? Or are you just another negative supporter.

He couldn't have, if he thought MGP was poor.

I see Sky Sports say,

"Match facts:

Man of the Match: Morten Gamst Pedersen. Classy performance from the Norwegian, who was a constant threat throughout."

[Jan]

Just watched "Football First". As Salgado was very far away from me, I only really saw his very first touch- which was sublime. Just seen his other two, and OH MY GOD. If we had another player apart from Dunny (and he has about 1/2) who had even 1/10 of his vision and skill, we'd be quids in.

That said I was absolutely delighted Dunny got "Man of the Match" again (He got it for West Ham- who got it for Man City?) He's probably the only midfielder we have who, if he stays fit, can be considered close to international class. I must admit, though after his goal I just wanted him taken off and wrapped up safely in bubble wrap as I was worried some nasty wolf might hurt him- and we can't afford that. Driving 210 miles home is always SO much better when we've won!

[Plastic Head]

In this form we look unstoppable. Shame City didn't come to town a month later, we'd probably have beaten them pretty easily. Dunno how much that Vinny Grella cost, but it was probably £5m too cheap, has he been given a new contract yet?

Andrews was crap, as per, but that Right back who came on looks a bit special. James Bond is as good as Warnock, and I reckon we'll treble our money for him in January.

Try again when you've sobered up.

[bigbrandjohn]

Didn't see or hear the game but it does my head in seeing the contrasting views of player performances. Gamst was man of the match or crap depending on the post, Andrews had one of his best games or was crap as usual. Givet was outstanding or was below par. Roberts is better than Heskey or will get us relegated. I guess it's the half empty v half full syndrome but the match reports suggest a "resurgent" performance and with players on the bench equal or better to those on the field, things are definitely looking positive. Mind you I'm a half full kind of guy .